HarpFlash – Interview with Florence Sitruk in Krakow, Poland 2019

We made this interview with French-German harpist and harp teacher Florence Sitruk on a beautiful autumn day in Krakow. Ms Sitruk is a professor in Bloomington at Jacobs School of Music and a guest professor at the Academy of Music in Krakow.

HarpSketch - Ewa Jaślar teaching harp (2017)

– So, variations, yes, Louis Spohr. So he lived in which era? When did he live?

– He lived in 19th century.

– Yeah, in the 19th century, his wife was a harpist. He was a violin player and an excellent composer and they traveled together and it was just wonderful, right?

This variation, this piece, "Je suis encore dans mon printemps", was a piece, an obligatory piece in the competition in 1969, the competition for which I went to Hartford. And this is how my career really started and professor von Würtzler gave me scholarship and it made me stay in the United States and then we put together the New York Harp Ensemble.

This piece is technically rather challenging only because, you see, the wife of Spohr what was... Dorette. Dorette Spohr was playing on a small harp, on a smaller harp and I think maybe it was easy but for you.

Tum Tum Tum Ti Rum Pum Pa-Rum Pum Pa-Rum Pum.

I believe that you'll just have to make sure that your muscles remember the jumps, you won't have time to look over there, just the muscles will know that this is the fourth, this is the fifth, this is the sixth, how you'll be jumping. But play it from the beginning, I will remember my good days of many-many years ago and I had to practice it when I went to Hartford.